‘Whitney’ Star Chris D’Elia Previews Intense Romantic Face-Off

So far this season on “Whitney,” you’ve seen the title character go to extreme lengths just to keep the romance alive with her live-in boyfriend, Alex. (Lesson learned: Role-playing naughty nurse can be a lot more dangerous than it looks.) So it makes sense that on tonight’s episode, Whitney goes even farther to ensure that the two don’t grow bored with each other by initiating a romance face-off to reignite their passion. Instead, as you can imagine might happen between the strong personalities played by Whitney Cummings and Chris D’Elia, the romance face-off ignites a fierce competition with no one willing to lose.

D’Elia hosted a conference call earlier this week with journalists to discuss, among other things, why Whitney and Alex always seem to be competing, how he would fare in a real-life romance face-off and whether marriage is in the cards for the NBC couple.

Preview Tonight’s Face-Off:

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“I think that what it is is that Whitney comes up with a nonexistent problem in her own head” D’Elia started, explaining the combative nature of his onscreen pairing. “Then, Alex kind of has fun with it and goes along with it. He’s the guy about it. [...] He tries to fix it although it’s not really a problem. I think it’s less about him being competitive with her and more him having fun with it. She is the competitive one. But I will say in [the next episode], you’ll definitely see Alex’s competitive side come out because it has to do with [keeping score] and he just gets way too competitive and kind of flies off the handle.”

But who would win in a romance-off between D’Elia and his sitcom personality Alex?

“If I have to set things up, I would not do well,” D’Elia conceded. “If I had to do a picnic with roses, I don’t think I would fare too well with that. I’m not good with location picking. Dressing up I can do and I think I’m good with saying things that would make a girl giggle. But if you’re coming to me hoping I’ll take you on a horse and carriage ride, that would just be — I don’t even know where to get a horse. I don’t know how any of that happens. If you want to go on a picnic, I feel like I’d go to the wrong park. I’m not the guy for it. [...] Alex has got me on the romance for sure.”

The stand-up comedian/actor also revealed whether he thinks Whitney and Alex are secure with their relationship and would consider getting married.

“The only thing [Whitney]‘s doubtful with in the relationship is if she ever wants to get married. In the beginning of the season, she says, ‘Marriage — no way! I would never get married.’ But by the end of the pilot episode, she comes to realize why there are good reasons to get married and she sees the other side of it. Every episode is basically either us getting closer to that or us getting further away. She knows she wants to be with Alex forever and Alex feels the same about her. Marriage isn’t necessarily the first thing on their mind though.”

How Chris and Whitney Met: “We met at — I can’t tell you where but it was definitely an open mic in L.A., somewhere in Hollywood. We were both starting out — she had been doing stand-up maybe a little longer than I had but we didn’t know who each other was and we kind of started talking and took a liking to each other. [...] We both wound up at the Comedy Store where we would bring each other up onstage — either I would follow her or she would follow me — and we just became really good friends. We’ve known each other now for about five or six years.”

Whether He Watches the Show Every Week: “I like to watch it. I know some actors are weird about watching themselves but maybe I just like myself too much. I just like to watch it. It doesn’t even matter with who…because you work so hard on each episode. [...] I also like to check Twitter while I’m watching to see what people are saying.”

What Chris Would Be Doing If He Was Not Acting: “I think I would have one outfit and I’d be on a bench somewhere. I don’t know. I’ve stuck with this profession for a long time. I’ve just recently gotten some success in the past few years but there were ten years there where I was just kind of kicking around. People are like, ‘Oh you got ‘Whitney!’ That’s such a great success story.’ But it’s just that I didn’t know what else to do. [...] There is no way that I could have a 9 to 5. I would need to do something creative.”